Home for the Easter Holiday (with a free digital download, too!)

April 8, 2020

Well, this weekend, I’m sure, doesn’t look like what we thought it would. But even in times of quarantine and social distancing, there’s no reason to skip the Easter celebrations. Even at home, there are so many ways to still celebrate the season in style and make the best with what you already have, along with a few easy grocery store finds. Today, we’ll give you a few ideas for this year’s stay-at-home Easter that will hopefully inspire your own backyard bash to celebrate with friends and family, whether you’re quarantined together in the same household or sharing over a screen.

Create flower arrangements, using florals from the grocery store and your backyard.

My next door neighbor, Carren, is the most amazing resource – as a professional florist and one of the kindest people I’ve ever met, she’s helped us a lot over the years create beautiful arrangements for our clients, photo shoots, and today, in honor of making the most out of Easter weekend while at home, Carren is showing us her favorite flower varieties that you can find at your own local grocery store, or even in your own backyard.

Carren’s go-to’s:

From Trader Joe’s:

Tulips

Iris

Lilies

Daffodils

From the backyard:

African iris grass

Giant liriope

Foxtail fern

Boston Fern

Need to open up your iris’? Carren says to put ice in a vase and place the stems to chill. After a little bit, take the iris out an “flick” the bud lightly until the petals begin to open up and peel back.

A note on the lilies – to keep from getting its yellow pollen all over your furniture, fabrics, and yourself, you can pull the stamen (the pollen producing part) out. At this stage, the stamen is still closed and is clean to touch. But, if it opens and you end up with yellow pollen all over your outdoor furniture or on any fabric, never touch it with your hand! The oils in your skin will set it into the fabric and just create a bigger mess. Instead, use a pipe cleaner (chenillie stem) to brush it off.

Plan a Kids’ Scavenger Hunt

I know when my kids were little, they would spend hours in the backyard playing games where one would hide a few random objects from the house, and the other would have to find them. For your own backyard Easter celebration, and even for spring days after it, what better way to keep the kids active and entertained than with their own scavenger hunt while they run around the yard looking for eggs?

This nostalgia from watching my then-little ones play in the backyard inspired our own fun little version of a Garden Scavenger Hunt, perfect for you and your now-little ones to run around and collect Easter eggs, while also exploring and learning about common flower varieties and garden critters in your own backyard! You can download this free digital PDF from our Charbonneau Studio, here.

Buy local produce

Now is a great time to support small businesses and included in that category are your local farmers and producers. For your own backyard celebration, consider buying local produce from amazing growers that might even be in your own neighborhood. Grapefruits, cucumbers, cauliflower, broccoli, and squash are a few of my own seasonal favorites that are in season right here in Texas. This website is a great resource to see how you can buy from local farmers, bakers, and growers to support our local farms here in Houston:

For our own vegetable basket, we put together some of my family’s favorites, like cauliflower, beets, carrots, artichokes, cabbage, and squash. At the end of the day, we then chopped everything up, threw it in some chicken broth, and cooked it to be this delicious (and super easy) vegetable soup for dinner. So, from your Easter celebrations, you could get both mid-day snacks and dinner out of it!

No tablecloth? No problem!

We created this tablescape using a plain white folding table, and pieces from a bolt of fabric I’ve had at my house. While not everyone may have just bolts of fabrics around (perks of being a textile and fabrics fanatic, I suppose), you can also use bed sheets, or assorted blankets for more of an eclectic feel. The whole premise of all of this is to get creative, think outside the box, and make it beautiful using what you have!